Ready or Not, iOS 7 is Here!

Last week we shared some thoughts on iOS 7, and what apps should focus on to take advantage of Apple’s largest operating system update in its history. Beyond a completely overhauled front-end user experience, there are also a number of back-end capabilities that enable developers to create even more compelling experiences for their mobile audiences.

The biggest game changer for app engagement is Background Push, which enables apps to process content and commands pushed behind the scenes. Already 85% of consumers prefer apps to the mobile web citing convenience and speed as the top two reasons—benefits that will be even bigger with Background Push. Apps can associate all kinds of actions with a push, from loading customized in-app purchase pages, to instantly playing songs or videos, to giving users pre-populated email or social content. We’re excited to see the creative use cases that evolve from here. It all adds up to less waiting and more time interacting, as content is delivered faster than ever before by being downloaded in the background.

We’ve helped a number of popular apps like theScore be among the first-to-market with Background Push, and are helping to support the massive scale it requires. With more content instantly available, app users will increase their consumption – and much more content will be getting pulled down to connected devices – so we’ve also introduced new Throttling capabilities that enable apps to control messaging rates, to balance out the load on your infrastructure as you prepare for the thundering herds.

iOS 7 also introduces a redesigned Notification Center, providing users more value and more opportunity to interact with your push messages, as well as app auto-updating so users will always have your latest and greatest capabilities along with any new Urban Airship features you integrate (background push, rich app pages, location-targeted messaging, etc).

Urban Airship is excited to be at the forefront of these big changes, and will continue to work closely with the major platform providers to ensure our customers can be at the forefront of adopting exciting innovations that improve users’ experiences and their bottom-lines.

Please visit our Developer blog for details on a host of changes for iOS 7, as well as quick links to documentation and our new 3.0.0 iOS SDK that will help you take advantage of new platform features. We’d love to hear how you leverage Background Push and, as always, are happy to offer assistance if you need it.